Why does Malawi’s highest office keep turning political partnerships into succession wars?
There is a haunting question in Malawi’s democratic experience: Why do presidents and vice-presidents so often begin as political partners and end up as rivals?
Since the return to multiparty democracy in 1994, the pattern has been persistent enough to warrant serious institutional examination. Bakili Muluzi and Justin Malewezi fell out over succession. Bingu wa Mutharika and Cassim Chilumpha entered a bitter dispute that eventually involved treason charges. Mutharika later fell out with Joyce Banda amid a succession struggle. Peter Mutharika and Saulos Chilima became political adversaries, while Lazarus Chakwera and Chilima experienced a visibly deteriorating relationship before Chilima’s death on June 10 2024.
Now, questions are again being raised about the relationship between President Peter Mutharika and First Vice-President Jane Ansah
What is the ghost at Plot No. 1?
Perhaps it is not a person, but a political culture.
Malawi’s Constitution establishes the position of Vice-President as an elected national office-holder who assists the President and performs functions assigned by the Constitution, Parliament or the President. Yet the office remains vulnerable to presidential discretion over delegated responsibilities and to political party succession struggles.
Former Vice-President Cassim Chilumpha recently described his experience under Bingu wa Mutharika as “hell”, saying he believed the problem partly arose because he had been selected by the UDF rather than personally chosen by Mutharika.
His account exposes a recurring weakness: although the President and Vice-President are elected together, the political relationship can still become psychologically structured as one of superior and subordinate.
A vice-president is simultaneously a deputy, a constitutional office-holder and a potential successor. That combination creates an inherent tension. The President may expect loyalty, while the Vice-President possesses political visibility and may have legitimate presidential ambitions.
The current administration, therefore, deserves scrutiny, not condemnation.
Mutharika chose Ansah as his running mate in the 2025 election, and the two were sworn into office on October 4 2025. Within months, however, responsibilities previously assigned to Ansah’s office were transferred to the Office of the President and Cabinet. The Department of Disaster Management Affairs was moved in January 2026, followed later that month by the Department of Public Sector Reforms Management. Government explained the changes in terms of central coordination, accountability and efficiency
The changes naturally generated political speculation about the relationship between Mutharika and Ansah. But speculation must be distinguished from established fact. Reports of deeper succession disagreements or alleged demands for Ansah’s resignation should therefore be treated as allegations unless independently substantiated.
The governance question is not whether a President and Vice-President must agree on everything. They do not. Nor should a President be prevented from reorganising government.
The deeper question is whether Malawi’s political system provides sufficient institutional protection for the Vice-President to allow legitimate differences without turning them into political exclusion
This is particularly important for the DPP. The succession question cannot simply be postponed until 2030. The party’s history demonstrates the risks of leaving succession unresolved until political ambitions become perceived threats
The DPP has already experienced the Mutharika-Chilima rupture. Chilima eventually left the party and formed the UTM Party. Earlier, the conflict between Bingu wa Mutharika and Joyce Banda demonstrated how succession tensions can fracture governing alliances.
If history teaches anything, it is that sidelining a Vice-President does not necessarily eliminate succession ambitions. It may simply push them outside the governing party.
That is the ghost.
It is the fear of the successor. It is political insecurity. It is the absence of predictable succession mechanisms. And it is the tendency to confuse loyalty to a President with loyalty to a political institution.
Most importantly, political succession is not an act of betrayal. It is a normal feature of democratic renewal.
The DPP should therefore think beyond personalities. A credible succession framework would allow potential successors to compete transparently within the party, preserve the constitutional dignity of the Vice-President and make it unnecessary for every emerging presidential ambition to be treated as rebellion.
Malawi does not need another vice-presidential crisis before learning this lesson.
The President needs a Vice-President who can serve without living under suspicion. The Vice-President needs to understand that serving under a President does not confer automatic entitlement to succeed him. And the political party needs institutions strong enough to accommodate both realities.
Perhaps, then, the ghost at State House is not the Vice-President
Perhaps the ghost is Malawi’s unresolved politics of succession
Until we confront it, Plot No. 1 may continue producing the same story—with different characters.
